Did the Candidates get equal time in the Fox News – Examiner debate?

At last night’s Fox News-Washington Examiner Republican presidential debate in Ames, Iowa, candidate Rick Santorum complained that he was shortchanged in the number of questions and airtime allotted to him. Addressing the audience, Santorum said, “I told you when I traveled around Iowa, you would see me in your city, in your hometown, but you probably wouldn’t see much of me on television. So it’s totally true tonight.”

I was part of the panel questioning the candidates Thursday night, and I can say that in preparations for the debate, the producers took a lot of care to make sure each candidate had an equal chance to speak. They’re so careful about it that in post-debate analysis they track every second each candidate talked. And here are the results for the Ames debate:

Mitt Romney

10.1 minutes

Michele Bachmann

10.0 minutes

Ron Paul

9.7 minutes

Tim Pawlenty

9.4 minutes

Rick Santorum

9.2 minutes

Newt Gingrich

8.7 minutes

Herman Cain

7.7 minutes

Jon Huntsman

7.2 minutes

The top five candidates in terms of air time — Romney, Bachmann, Paul, Pawlenty, and, yes, Santorum

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Albert Milliron is the founder of Politisite. Milliron has been credentialed by most major news networks for Presidential debates and major Political Parties for political event coverage. Albert maintains relationships with the White House and State Department to provide direct reporting from the Administration’s Press team. Albert is the former Public Relations Chairman of the Columbia County Republican Party in Georgia. He is a former Delegate.
Milliron is a veteran of the US Army Medical Department and worked for Department of Veterans Affairs, Department of Psychiatry.